Research Consultant: Syria Country Study on Return Implications for Host Economies

About the role

Prosper Global, working with UNDP under a UNDP and Prosper Global initiative funded by the Regional Development and Protection Program (RDPP), is running three country studies on Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on "Return Implications for Host Economies". This consultancy covers the Syria study, examining how returns from Lebanon and Jordan affect the economies of the main areas of return and whether those areas can absorb returnees. The work is based in Syria and can also be done remotely, and the application deadline is 20 November.

Key responsibilities

• Review existing studies on returns and the economies of areas of return to confirm evidence gaps and refine research questions.
• Check data availability on labor, prices and rents, service use, aid flows and returns, and recommend feasible additional components.
• Select, with Syrian research partners, three to four areas of return (likely Dar'a, Rural Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Idleb) and finalize the research design, sampling, tools, workplan and risk mitigation.
• Analyze secondary data such as IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix, UNHCR return monitoring, REACH assessments, WFP market monitoring and World Bank economic monitoring.
• Brief research partners on tools, sampling and ethics, oversee and quality-assure their data collection, and document gaps.
• Conduct or oversee at least 20 key informant interviews with councils, chambers of commerce, service providers, banks, traders, donors and NGOs, and at least two sector deep-dives (expected agriculture and construction).
• Oversee focus group discussions with returnees from Lebanon and Jordan, long-term residents and returning internally displaced persons, and light market checks on prices, rents and goods.
• Triangulate findings across sources, report them as associations unless the design and data support causal claims, and apply ethics and conflict-sensitivity principles throughout.
• Develop country-level recommendations on service planning, investment facilitation, civil documentation and housing, land and property support, and cross-border work and trade arrangements.